In electrical wiring harnesses, such as those used in automobiles, there is often a need for an electrical connection to pass through a panel or bulkhead, for instance the barrier between the passenger compartment and the engine compartment or the outer case of an electric vehicle battery pack. The connection through the bulkhead is typically made by a header having two sets of interconnected terminals, one set to connect to a wiring harness connector on one side of the bulkhead and a second set to connect to another wiring harness connector on the other side of the bulkhead. The header may provide features for environmentally sealing the connections and the bulkhead to inhibit unwanted contaminants, e.g. water or dust, from contacting the terminals or penetrating the bulkhead.
In certain high voltage circuits, for example circuits conducting the primary power supply from the battery pack to a motor in an electric vehicle, shielded electrical cables may be used with the header. As used herein, a shielded electrical cable contains a conductive center core insulated from an outer conductor, e.g. a coaxial cable. The outer conductor provides protection or shielding from electromagnetic interference that may be generated by the high voltages conducted by the conductive core. The outer conductor provides protection from electromagnetic interference that may be generated by high voltages conducted by the conductive core and is typically connected to an electrical ground. A header used with a shielded cable should maintain shielding of the outer conductor on at least one side of the bulkhead. In some known header designs, shielding is provided by a sheet metal box that surrounds the terminals and is connected to the outer conductor and the electrical ground.
In the expanding applications for high voltage connection systems used on hybrid and/or electric vehicles, automobile manufacturers have expressed interest in a shielded header that allows a connector to mate in a direction that is generally parallel to the bulkhead to which the header attached. Therefore, a header is desired that is designed to mate to an existing environmentally sealed high voltage female connector, with no modifications to the female connector. The header must electromagnetically shield the power and signal terminals from the female connector and ground to the bulkhead. The header must be environmentally sealed. The header must mate to a connector with an orientation generally parallel to the mounting surface of the header, typically referred to as a right angle header.
A header having a sheet metal box that axially surrounds the conductive elements to provide a shield and an electrical path between the outer conductor and the bulkhead may be fairly easily constructed for a header when the conductive elements are straight, such as those in a straight header where the first and second connector are both oriented perpendicularly to the bulkhead. An example of such a shielded header may be found in U.S. Pat. No. 8,235,744 granted on Aug. 7, 2012 to Liptak, et al. However, forming a sheet metal box to surround conductive elements that are not straight, such as those required for a right angle header is much more complex and the manufacturing processes needed would undesirably add cost to the header. WIPO International Patent Application WO 2012/019986 published Feb. 16, 2012 shows such a shielded right angle header. This right angle header requires two separate sheet metal shields to provide electromagnetic shielding to the terminals of the header.
The subject matter discussed in the background section should not be assumed to be prior art merely as a result of its mention in the background section. Similarly, a problem mentioned in the background section or associated with the subject matter of the background section should not be assumed to have been previously recognized in the prior art. The subject matter in the background section merely represents different approaches, which in and of themselves may also be inventions.